Harvard University has been successful in obtaining a court injunction that will temporarily halt a plan by the administration of Donald Trump to prevent the university from accepting students from other countries.
On Friday, a district judge in the United States named Allison Burroughs issued an order that prevents the government from proceeding with the move. This announcement signified an intensification of the conflict that has been going on between the administration and the elite institution.
By demonstrating that “it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury” in the absence of the temporary restraining order, the judge stated in her ruling that the institution had demonstrated this. The action taken by the government is placed on hold until a subsequent hearing is held.
Her decision came just a few hours after Harvard University filed a legal lawsuit, alleging that the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to prevent the university from enrolling students from other countries was a violation of the university’s constitutional and due process rights. The president of the university, Alan Garber, stated in an open letter that a temporary restraining order would be issued after the meeting.
The lawsuit stated that “it is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.” This was the most recent act of retaliation that the government has taken against Harvard.
Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, addressed a letter to Harvard University on Thursday, telling the university that its incoming class of international students would be prohibited from attending, and that the university’s current students who are from other countries would be required to enrol elsewhere. It has been reported that approximately 7,000 of Harvard’s current students might be impacted by this.
In an attack that was levelled by the administration against universities that were the scene of pro-Palestinian protests following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent offensive that the government launched in Gaza, Noem accused Harvard of creating a “hostile” environment for Jewish students.
In addition, Noem asserted that the institution did not cooperate with its request to produce all records of illegal, dangerous, or aggressive behaviour on the part of international students. This included cases in which students made threats or disciplinary action was taken against them. During his letter that was sent out on Friday, Garber stated that the school had cooperated with the law in terms of the requests that were made by the department regarding pupils.
The assistant secretary for public relations at the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, stated that the lawsuit filed by Harvard was intended to undermine the authority of the president, and that the government will continue to be unwavering in its endeavour to prevent overseas students from enrolling at the school.
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” said McLaughlin. “It is a privilege.”
There is no litigation, this one or any other, that is going to change the fact that the Trump administration is dedicated to bringing back common sense to our student visa system. She continued by saying, “We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side that we have.”
After reporters in the Oval Office questioned President Trump about whether or not he was contemplating taking action to prevent other colleges from enrolling international students, the president responded by saying, “We’re taking a look at a lot of things.”
“We are actually going to be doing something in the near future that will make it possible for people to come into this country and come in and, you know, have a road towards citizenship, and I think it will be very exciting, but it is too soon to speak,” said the person.
When the action was taken against Harvard, it triggered a wider range of concerns and criticism from academic and university groups, as well as networks representing international students, in addition to some responses that were inspired by opportunities. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has extended an invitation to the overseas students who are now enrolled at Harvard as well as those who will register in the future to join with them instead.
For a very long time, international students have been a significant source of revenue for schools in the United States, including Harvard, in the form of tuition and other fees.
According to estimates provided by the 1636 Forum of Harvard alumni, the annual tuition fees collected by international students amounted to more than $300 million for the university. According to the report, a prohibition on international students would also bring about a threat to other income, notably the more than 170 million dollars in fees earned by the business school.
It is Harvard’s second legal action against the Trump administration, and it is the school’s case against the Department of Homeland Security. The school filed its initial lawsuit against the administration one month ago, claiming that the administration’s requests to impose government control violated the school’s right to academic freedom. Additionally, the government has prohibited the school from receiving more than $2.2 billion in federal support.
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